What does the research say?

Research consistently demonstrates the importance of the Early Years for immediate and long-term educational and social outcomes. Longitudinal studies such as the Effective Pre-school, Primary and Secondary Education (EPPSE) project (2015), provides robust evidence on the long-term significance of high-quality early years education. Quality early provision predicts improved attainment in literacy and numeracy, enhanced social-behavioural outcomes, and greater educational progress throughout primary and secondary schooling (Sylva et al., 2004; Sammons et al., 2015). These benefits persist into adolescence, influencing Key Stage 2 results, GCSE achievement, and broader life outcomes. Children who experience high-quality Reception teaching can expect improved employment prospects and higher lifetime earnings (Durham University/DfE, 2020).

At Mugginton, our EYFS provision is built around adult-child and child-child interactions, high quality, responsive planning and early intervention to secure excellent outcomes.

Research demonstrates that effective adult–child interactions, purposeful pedagogy, and responsive assessment is more strongly associated with positive outcomes than structural factors such as class size or building quality (Sylva et al., 2004). The DfE’s “Best Start in Life” evidence review (2024) highlights workforce expertise, stable staffing, and pedagogical coherence as drivers of effectiveness.

At Mugginton, we use this clear evidence base as our starting point in our work to achieve the very best for the children in our care.

We aim to provide our children with the best possible start in life by offering a wide variety of pre-planned activities/experiences, as well as ‘in the moment’ learning which follows their interests, is engaging, challenging and memorable. In short, we create a curriculum that provides our children with experiences, knowledge and a developing awareness of others and the world around them.

We aim to be a secure base for our children. It is our intent that children who enter our EYFS develop physically, verbally, cognitively and emotionally whilst establishing a positive attitude to school and a love of learning. Children have the right to feel safe in school, safe to be themselves and to be loved and cared for by everybody. By the time our children progress into Year 1, we want them to have a natural curiosity/thirst for new learning and new experiences. We want our children to feel comfortable asking questions and to take an age-appropriate responsibility for their learning.

 Our EYFS curriculum aims to enable our children to:

• Be secure and confident learners – We want children to enjoy coming to school, to build strong relationships with other children and staff in our setting and to feel confident learning new skills and knowledge which builds on their existing learning.

• Be competent and creative learners – we want children to be curious about the world around them and to ask questions to find out more about it.

• Be skilful communicators – We want our children to be able to use language to communicate with the world around them, to play with others appropriately, to make friends and to learn and use new vocabulary.

• Be resilient – We want our children to learn that mistakes are a part of learning. We want them to feel confident to make mistakes and to not give up.

Community involvement is an essential part of our curriculum. We celebrate local traditions such as the Brailsford Ploughing Match and learn new skills to enable our youngest children to take an active role in all school events. We work in partnership with parents and carers to encourage independent, happy learners who thrive in school and reach their full potential from their various starting points.

How and why do we teach what we teach?

The EYFS statutory framework provides the legal and pedagogical foundation for Reception practice. It defines expected learning and development goals, assessment processes and safeguarding requirements (DfE, 2025)

In the new statutory EYFS framework there are four overarching principles

• Every child is a unique child who is constantly learning and can be resilient, capable, confident and self-assured.

• Children learn to be strong and independent through positive relationships.

• Children learn and develop well in enabling environments with teaching and support from adults, who respond to their individual interests and needs and help them build their learning over time. Children benefit from a strong partnership between practitioners and parents and/or carers.

• Importance of learning and development. Children develop and learn at different rates. The framework covers the education and care of all children in early years provision, including children with SEND.

Alongside this, two key principles of our unique EYFS offer are:

• Balanced pedagogy: Reception should combine play-based, exploratory approaches with structured learning opportunities to promote development.

• Targeted support: Interventions in Reception can help reduce disadvantage-related gaps, especially in language and self-regulation.

Our curriculum is also underpinned by the 3 characteristics of effective learning identified in the EYFS Framework and Development Matters document. These are the behaivours children use in order to learn:

1. Playing and exploring – observing how children engage with their learning.

2. Active learning – observing how children are motivated to learn.

3. Creating and thinking critically – observing how children are thinking.

 Our children are provided with daily varied learning opportunities in our indoor and outdoor provision. They engage in planned, focused activities with an adult or independently as well as self-initiated and free flow activities (termed ‘Busy Learning’). The learning experiences within our Early Years are linked to the seven areas of learning and development within the EYFS.

These are split into the three prime areas and four specific areas. The Prime areas of development and learning lay vital foundations in the early years. The three Prime areas, Personal, social and emotional development (PSED), Communication and language (CL), and Physical development (PD), describe universal core aspects of early child development.  They are time-sensitive because of biological factors that enable rapid brain connections, particularly in the first three years of life but continuing throughout early childhood.  Developmental steps missed at this early crucial stage are much harder to address later on, so it is crucial that children’s interactions and experiences in the first few years support development in these fundamental areas.

• Personal, Social and Emotional Development – involves activities which encourage children to be active and to develop their coordination, control and movement. Children must also be helped to understand the importance of physical activity and to make healthy choices in relation to food.

• Communication and Language – concerns the importance of a rich language environment for children to develop confidence and skills to express themselves and listen in a range of situations.

• Physical Development – involves activities which help children to develop a positive sense of themselves and to form positive relationships and develop respect for others. Children must learn to manage their feelings, to understand appropriate behaviour in groups and to have confidence in their own abilities.

All three Prime areas are always in action for a young child.

In every activity, the child is experiencing feelings and developing a sense of self and others, is physically engaged through their senses and movements, and is learning to understand and communicate with others.  It is through these aspects that a child accesses the world around them and relationships with other people. The Prime areas strongly influence learning in the four Specific areas of learning and development.

• Literacy – encouraging children to link sounds and letters and to begin to read and write. Children are given access to a wide range of reading materials (books, poems and other written materials) to ignite their interest.

• Mathematics – providing children with opportunities to develop and improve their skills in counting, understanding and using numbers, calculating simple addition and subtraction problems and describing shapes, space and measures.

• Understanding the World – guiding children to make sense of their physical world and their community through opportunities to explore, observe and find out about people, places, technology and the environment.

• Expressive Arts and Design – enabling children to explore and play with a wide range of media and materials as well as providing opportunities and encouragement for sharing their thoughts, ideas and feelings.

Children benefit from meaningful learning across the curriculum and our staff plan for opportunities for communication, sustained shared thinking and physical challenge while always taking into account the Characteristics of Effective Learning.

We aim to provide children with rich first-hand experiences (school trips, Forest Friday, inside and outside provision, investigations, Collective Worship) to widen awe and wonder and give children greater insight into the world around them.

New vocabulary and ideas are shared through daily reading. Staff model standard English consistently and ask high quality questions to develop learning. Our curriculum promotes children’s emotional security and development of character because they are able to take risks in a safe and secure environment. We encourage our children to be active every day and explain why it is important to eat, drink healthily and to exercise as well as to be kind to others.

How do we know what pupils have learnt and how well they have learnt it?

Our curriculum is carefully planned to meet the needs of all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds and those with SEND. We observe our children learning on a daily basis by talking to them, engaging with the provision alongside them, observing their learning, looking at the work they are doing and analysing data over time to identify children who need more time and support. Data is tracked on a half-termly basis, beginning with the Reception Baseline Assessment (RBA) which must be completed in the first half term of the academic year.

Evidence of children’s work is kept in a ‘special book’ where adult-led work is recorded. This is shared with parents during parents evenings and sent home at the end of the year. We take photos which are stored on our school encrypted server and are shared on our social media pages.

Reception staff use a Floor Book with written and photographic evidence of the main focus-areas of learning for the week. The school uses an in-house tracking document in line with Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 tracking to monitor progress in each area for each half-term.

Mugginton takes part in school, County and other local moderation activities to ensure that decisions we make are accurate and fair. Parents and carers are encouraged to share learning and celebrations from home using staff email and our ‘show and tell’ sessions. We share children’s achievements regularly through conversations with parents, celebration assembly on Friday and our twice-yearly parents meetings and end of term report.

Our intention is that the curriculum we offer helps every child in our care to make excellent progress and secure a Good Level of Development (GLD) at the end of the year. We believe that our rich balance of learning experiences, quality staff, ambitious curriculum, nurturing environment is the best way to develop happy, curious and well-rounded children.